Last year's turnout — the highest for a midterm election in a century — was boosted by bursts of new voters from virtually every demographic group, the Census Bureau reports.
Overall turnout was a shade above 53 percent of eligible voters, a whopping 16 percentage points higher than in the previous midterm, halfway through President Obama's second term. (That 37 percent turnout of 2014 was the lowest for a midterm since World War II.)
Notably, 36 percent of the youngest eligible voters, those 18 to 29, cast ballots last year — up 16 points from four years earlier. But still, young people as a share of the electorate edged up just a couple of points, to 7 percent, because other cohorts were also on the rise. The elderly, who constitute nearly one-quarter of the electorate, vote at a fundamentally higher rate: Last year 66 percent of people older than 65 went to the polls, a 7-point uptick.
Highlights of the turnout increases for other sectors of the population:
- 49 percent of people 30 to 44, up 13 points from 2014
- 58 percent of whites, up 12 points to the highest level for a midterm in four decades
- 51 percent of blacks, up 10 points
- 41 percent of Asians, up 14 points
- 40 percent of Hispanics, up 13 points
- 74 percent of citizens with postgraduate degrees, up 12 points
- 59 percent of people with a bachelor's degree or some college, up 13 points
- 42 percent of high school graduates, up 8 points
- 27 percent of those without a high school diploma, up 5 points
The data, released Tuesday, was from a special survey the Census Bureau conducts nationwide after each federal election. The Washington Post has more numbers and good graphics of the historic trends.
With President Trump on the ballot, the boost he provided to midterm turnout (which energized both the GOP and Democratic bases, although the latter a bit more) should continue if not be magnified in 2020. Changes to election laws, making it easier to register and vote in several states, also seem sure to enhance turnout next time.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.